


The Theft

by shadow_lover



Category: Original Work
Genre: Consent Issues, Convicts on the Run, First Kiss, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6456673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_lover/pseuds/shadow_lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It might have been smarter to leave Kae behind. A mad dash through the mountains was no place for a pleasure slave, and now the authorities were seeking Tamsin for theft on top of everything else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Theft

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pokolips](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokolips/gifts).



> Thank you for the fantastic prompts! I ended up blending some of the slave prompts with the convict prompts, and I hope the combination is to your liking :)

The wind cut cold between the winter-dead trees. The dark clouds promised snow within the hour. Tamsin cursed silently and tugged his jacket close. _We have to get to the cabin soon._

If he were out hunting with his peers at the embassy or training with the other soldiers in his reserve squad, the weather wouldn’t worry him. Hell, he’d spent the past three years across the border, where people started wearing scarves and fur-lined boots in early September. Tamsin could handle the snow.

But the boy shivering behind him could not.

He glanced back down the path and grimaced. Kae was lagging behind, and he looked absolutely miserable—a delicate rose removed from the sheltering greenhouse. His pale face was red with the cold, and his dark hair was half-fallen from its intricate braid. He was so thin, he looked as though the next gust of wind might knock him over.

Tamsin’s stomach twisted with guilt for dragging Kae out here. _I had no choice. No good choice, anyway. I couldn’t leave him with Uncle._

It might have been smarter to leave Kae behind. A mad dash through the mountains was no place for a pleasure slave, and now the authorities were seeking Tamsin for theft on top of everything else. Desertion, treason, whatever other charges his lord uncle had trumped up.

 _Theft. Like I’ve taken a necklace, or a vintage cell phone._ This wasn’t the time for legal semantics, though. Regardless of what Tamsin was charged with, at least he’d get a trial. Kae would be accused of conspiracy and disobedience. A slave was punished according to the owner’s discretion, and Dane Kovar erred on the side of brutality.

At the next turn in the path, sheltered somewhat by the bulk of a massive oak tree, Tamsin stopped.

Eyes downcast, Kae nearly ran into him before skidding to a halt. He looked up, color draining from his face. “Sir—I’m sorry, I—”

Tamsin held him by the elbow. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “I should've said something. I just wanted to take a break for a minute.”

“Yes, sir.” Kae dropped his gaze again. He was well-trained—far too schooled in submission to disagree with Tamsin directly—but there was a hint of rebuke in his words regardless. Even though he trembled with exhaustion, Kae had to be desperate to reach the promised cabin.

Tamsin was desperate too. They had left the main road two days ago, after Tamsin spotted a cafe’s television displaying his photo. _Tamsin Kovar sought for theft. Alert local dispatch if seen. May be armed. Do not engage._ He realized then that if he wanted to reach the border, he’d have to take the backwoods path.

His only hope was that his mother’s old cabin remained intact and undisturbed. A police officer turned resistance leader, Madrene Kovar nurtured a paranoia born through years of warfare. Tamsin was fairly sure even her brother—his uncle—didn’t know about the cabin in the mountains.

“We’re almost there,” Tamsin said, unfastening his jacket. He shrugged it off and winced with the cold. “But we won’t get there at all if you freeze to death first. Here.”

Kae reached for the jacket, then stilled. “I already have a coat,” he protested. “Sir. We won’t get there if _you_ freeze either.”

“Your coat’s next to useless, and I should have found you a better one. It… it’ll please me, if you wear mine.” It pained him to take advantage of Kae’s training like that, but he didn’t have the luxury of ethics at the moment.

Sure enough, Kae took the jacket and zipped it on. It was far too large on him, hanging loose over his thin coat. Absurdly, it _did_ please Tamsin to see Kae in his jacket. The incongruence of the slim, soft figure in the rough, oversized military gear brought out a fierce light in Kae’s eyes. Throughout the harrowing journey, Kae had never complained once, and Tamsin was starting to think that stoic silence was more than the result of trained obedience—it was strength. 

“Let’s go,” Tamsin said. When he turned to continue, he could hear Kae’s light footsteps much closer than before. The boy didn’t fall behind again.

They reached the cabin half an hour ahead of sunset. The single-room structure was set far off the path in a thick copse of trees, and the rough-hewn logs of the walls blended with the mountainside. Wood was more difficult to pick up on scanners than concrete.

“That’s it, right, sir?” The relief in Kae’s voice was palpable.

Tamsin was no less grateful. The walk hadn’t kept him nearly warm enough. “That’s it. Now, wait here.” He had to make sure the cabin was clear. Drawing his gun, he edged forward to listen at the door. Nothing. The panel by the doorframe was dark, but the numbers were on the keypad instead of the touchscreen. When he punched in the old passcode, he heard the click of the door unlocking.

He burst into the cabin to find it as empty and dusty as he hoped. The tiny space was sparsely furnished: a table, two chairs, a cupboard, a bed frame, a bare mattress, a trunk at the foot of the bed. There was nowhere to hide. Tamsin holstered his gun and called for Kae to come in.

“Can you look around for blankets?” he asked, dumping his backpack on the ground. “I’m going to look for firewood.”

“Yes, sir.”

The honorific always sounded so sweet in Kae’s soft voice. Like a gift eagerly given, and Tamsin thought, _I’ll have to teach him not to do that._ But the day—the whole week—had been hard enough on Kae. To go from a pampered pleasure slave, newly purchased by the local lord, to a hunted fugitive… There was only so much change Tamsin could force on the boy in one week. He would just have to tolerate the _sir_ as best he could.

They split up to their appointed tasks. Tamsin found an axe leaning against the fireplace, but he hardly needed it. There were enough fallen branches scattered around. By the time the sun dipped beneath the treeline and the first flakes of snow flew down, Tamsin had piled enough wood to last for two nights right inside the door. He had a feeling they might be stuck for a day or two, and once the snow fell it’d be much harder to find dry wood. From what he could tell, the cabin’s insulation wasn’t as effective as it must have been years ago. Even within four walls, the night would be hard.

Kae had amassed a pile of musty blankets on the bed. The vacuum seal on the trunk must have broken, but Tamsin didn’t care if the blankets smelled nice. “Good work,” he said, moving over to join Kae at the bed. He looked away from the boy’s glowing smile—simple praise shouldn’t elicit such a reaction. That smile shouldn’t affect _Tamsin_ so much. “Did you find anything else handy?”

“No, sir. Well, there were water bottles and a first aid kit in the cupboard, but they looked old.”

“Probably useless, yeah.” That was alright; Tamsin had water and bandages in his backpack. 

Kae looked down for a moment, then brought his fingers to his throat to start unzipping the jacket. “You can have this back now.” The jacket was half off his shoulders before he hesitated. “I mean, if you’d like, sir.”

Tamsin almost refused. Kae still looked half-frozen. But this was the closest Kae had ever come to demanding something of him, and he didn’t have the heart to deny him. So he just said, “Thanks,” and took the jacket, and Kae’s smile was worth it. “I’ll get the fire started.”

He’d intended to grab the blankets himself after, but by the time he’d lit the kindling Kae had already dropped the blanket by the hearth. They worked together to drag the mattress across the floor—Kae was too exhausted to carry it by himself, though he would never ask for help.

All the practical efforts served as a distraction from a fact Tamsin had known since the first sign of the oncoming blizzard. They would need to share blankets if they didn’t want to freeze. 

Under usual circumstances, Tamsin would be thrilled by the thought of sleeping beside a beautiful young man. And that was the problem: he was still thrilled. He couldn’t deny that Kae was beautiful. That Kae’s smile set his pulse racing. That Kae’s thin hands would look better clasped in his.

 _I can’t touch him. He’s a slave. He doesn’t know how to say no._ He’d run through the litany of rebuke often enough over the past few days. Every hour away from the Kovar estate, Kae smiled a little brighter—and Tamsin stifled his own growing attraction. The devious voice in the back of his head that whispered: _But he’s not_ your _slave. And you’d be kinder than your uncle._

That wasn’t saying much, of course. Most men were kinder than Dane Kovar.

The wind howled. Tamsin checked the doors and windows—all locked, though the window seals looked woefully worn-down—before carrying his backpack to the hearth. He set his gun on the floor a safe distance away. “What do you want to do first—eat, or check your back?”

Kae sat at the edge of the mattress nearest the fire. He was still shivering as he drew a blanket over his shoulders. “Let’s eat first, sir.”

Even if they couldn’t shake the honorific, the boy was getting better about making choices quickly. Tamsin sat down next to him, close enough that their thighs touched through Kae’s blanket. He took out a whole ration bar for each of them—the bars were technically enough for two meals, but they’d spent too much time on the road that day. If they didn’t reach the border before they ran out, they’d have bigger problems than food to worry about. 

When they finished eating, Tamsin got out the ointment, gauze, and tape, and Kae twisted to face away, kneeling on the mattress with his head bowed. He undid his coat slowly, then paused. His hiss of pain was barely audible.

Tamsin held his breath as he helped ease the coat down from sharp-angled shoulders. He wished he could blame the heat on the fire at their side. If they were anywhere else—if they were anyone else—he would give anything for another reason to be stripping Kae down.

Kae’s shirt was next, and Tamsin pulled it down even more carefully. He didn’t bother pulling Kae’s arms from the long sleeves, just let it hang from his elbows to expose his bare back.

Most of the lash-marks were only welts. The raised pink lines crisscrossing Kae’s pale skin had faded over the past week. Tamsin’s main concern was the set of three marks slashed from left shoulder to right hip—Uncle had switched to his preferred whip for the final strike. Gauze and tape covered the first three inches of the marks, where the whip had cut deepest.

Kae flinched when Tamsin pulled the bandage off, but he made no sound. He never did, not even when Tamsin rubbed ointment along each of the three long cuts in turn. Tamsin wished he had enough medication to treat the rest of Kae’s back, but all he could do was tend the more severe cuts. The stitches over the deepest parts had held, and Tamsin thought he would be able to cut them out in another week. _We’ll have a real medic to do that by then._

He taped a new gauze pad over the stitches. Kae’s skin was warm beneath his fingers, but the boy was trembling again. Tamsin would have to make sure the fire lasted the night. It was his fault Kae was out here, no matter how valid his reasons were. He was responsible for Kae’s well-being. He had to get over his own issues and keep it together for both their—

And Kae had stilled. Tamsin realized his hand had lingered too long against his side, and he drew back like he’d been burned.

Kae said, “Tamsin.”

The syllables held on the cold air, and Tamsin’s breath caught. He’d never heard his name on Kae’s lips before.

“Yes?” he answered quietly.

Kae twisted around again, his hands curled tight in the blankets over his lap. “I wanted to thank you.”

“What?” Tamsin couldn’t help the exclamation, but Kae didn’t flinch away.

“For stealing me.” The firelight gleamed in his eyes, in his tangled hair, along his bare shoulders.

“Kidnapping.”

Kae’s lips curved in a hint of a smile. “As you like, sir.” Still holding Tamsin’s gaze, he slowly pulled his arms from his shirtsleeves. Even stiff with his injuries and the stress of the journey, his movements were graceful. He had no scars visible from this angle; he had been a blank canvas before arriving at the Kovar estate.

Pale as Kae was, around his neck was a ring of even paler skin, where the leather collar had rested before Tamsin cut it away. _Collar or no, he’s not free until we reach the border. And even then, he doesn’t know_ —Tamsin’s shudder had nothing to do with the cold.

It had something to do with the young man leaning forward, one arm braced against the mattress, the other hand lifting to wait just inches from Tamsin’s cheek. Kae wasn’t smiling now.

Torn between breaking away and falling forward, Tamsin held still. “If you want to _thank_ me, this isn’t the way.”

Kae flushed, but didn’t retreat. “It isn’t like that.”

“Then what’s it like?” Tamsin asked, unable to help himself, though he knew the answer might undo him.

“Let me have this,” Kae whispered. “Please. I’ve never—” He looked down, very still, and hardly seemed to breathe. Tamsin waited through the heavy silence, until Kae continued: “I’ve never taken something I wanted before.”

The last of Tamsin’s restraint burned up like kindling. “And what do you want?”

Kae tilted his head. “Can I kiss you?” His almost-smile flickered again.

“If you want,” Tamsin said, his mouth dry, as Kae’s thin hand finally curved around his jaw. The lightest touch held him hostage.

Kae leaned in closer, and his next words carried a thread of his usual uncertainty. “And you— _you_ want to kiss me too, right?”

“ _Yes_.” He didn’t know how anyone couldn’t.

“Oh, good,” Kae breathed, and pressed his lips to Tamsin’s.

He couldn’t hear the storm beyond the rushing in his ears. Kae kissed gently, and Tamsin took his lead. He wanted Kae more than he’d wanted anything or anyone in his life, but in their tiny haven from the storm there was no urgency. He needed nothing more and nothing less than slow movements, the slightest press of tongue, the cold hand sliding from his cheek to tangle in his hair.

Tamsin traced the line of Kae’s arm from wrist to elbow to shoulder. His palm curved around Kae’s neck like they were made to touch. And if Kae kissed with a delicate expertise, born of practice rather than passion—whatever his past, Tamsin didn’t think anyone could feign this quiet desperation. He could almost pretend they were nothing but two men entangled at the hearth, rather than a pair of fugitives, a slave and a wayward noble.

Kae pulled away too soon to duck his forehead against Tamsin’s shoulder. His breath was ragged, and his fingers still twisted in Tamsin’s hair. “I’ve wanted that.”

“So have I,” Tamsin said, because he owed honesty in return. He’d wanted this and more. He thought Kae might want more. But judging by Kae’s heaviness against him and his own muddled thoughts, they were both too exhausted to think about anything else. “We should sleep.”

“Yes, sir,” Kae mumbled. Then he stiffened.

Tamsin closed his eyes. “It’s okay,” he said, and it was almost frightening how quickly Kae relaxed again. “Come on.” He nudged Kae off of his shoulder.

Kae moved slowly, eyes half-shut. All the rest of his energy seemed to have burned away in their kiss. Tamsin felt just as drained. He slid under the blankets and lay back on the mattress, pulling Kae carefully with him. If he touched a welt on accident, Kae said nothing about it. Even as Kae was settling in, laying half on top of him, Tamsin drifted into the hazy dark of sleep.

He could handle the cold. But with the fire burning strong and Kae curled against his chest, he didn’t need to.


End file.
